Week ending 19.10.07

Recently it appears that my articles have been focused on issues of immigration and race relations throughout the world.

Now that the Australian Prime Minister has launched an election, the news will be swamped with political policies and the blunders of the candidates, and I will be here to write satire about it all.

In this electoral race politicians will again lie to the common man, and the common man will forget about how they have been lied to in the past and refuse to focus on the policies of the politicians.

However before we descend into an electoral farce, one news item in particular caught my attention with week.

Enjoy

Black Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds was racially abused by an Indian crowd for the third straight game last night.The abuse comes a day after members of India’s cricket board denied the previous incidents and said it would need proof before taking the allegations seriously.

Symonds was greeted by a din of boos and catcalls as he walked out to bat, and there were distinct monkey calls. An Australian photographer took pictures of offending crowd members.

The International Cricket Council’s anti-racism code was instantly flashed on the screen, but Symonds seemed unsettled and was dismissed first ball. He slowly left the ground to a repeat performance of the chanting.

The Board of Cricket Control India, ground authorities and media have denied Symonds was abused in Vadodara on October 11 and at Nagpur on Sunday. BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah told The Australian two days ago it was a misunderstanding.

India’s hastily appointed anti-racism officer, Ratnaker Shetty, demanded proof of any events before this match and pointed the finger back at Australia. “It is not as though Australia has been above all that,” he said. “I was in Vadodara myself and there was so much noise the crowd was making. It is difficult to identify this particular section. They are chanting and shouting all the time. It’s just media speculation. Unless there is some proof, how can you pick on it?”

The police chief at Nagpur, CP Thakur, claimed the fans at his ground were praying to Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god.

“There is no grain of truth whatsoever in what Symonds has accused the crowds of,” he said. “The cops and other security personnel on duty in the stands have vouched that the people were actually chanting the hymns of Lord Ganesha in Gujarati and Hindi … and not abusing Symonds. Symonds mistook their chanting for racial abuse because he couldn’t understand what they’re saying.”

Symonds said after the Nagpur match he was annoyed the Indian cricket authorities were denying the incident occurred. Source: The Australian

Originally the cricket authorities tried to keep Symonds quiet when he first complained. They said to him that he was Black, they were Black, stop causing a fuss and get on and play cricket.

It was only after the media started to also focus on the crowd that the cricket authorities began to swing into action.

These types of racist taunts use to be prevalent on the football terraces of England back in the 70s 80s and 90s, and unfortunately they can still be heard on the terraces of Eastern European countries.

It is hard to believe that this behaviour is still going on in this day and age, let alone from the Indians.

Although I am aware that the Indian culture still promotes the caste system, I was still shocked to see this sort of behaviours coming from this quarter.

I would have thought a culture that has been subjected to such racial abuse in the past would not lower themselves to deliver the same abuse to others.

I believe that the sports terraces bring out the deepest characteristics in a person.

I believe that the crowds, the camaraderie, the hysteria, and the anonymity within the masses allow the spectator to feel safe enough to reveal their true selves. It allows them to express feelings and carry out actions that they would be afraid to do otherwise.

I have seen otherwise peaceful male and female individuals, once in a crowd, pull Irish police officers out of their vehicle, beat them near to death and then shoot them.

I have seen crowds lay siege to a police station Iran where a man had take refuge in a locked police cell. The crowd formed a human ladder, drag the man from the outside window of his cell, then beat him to death before taking an iron fence and severing his head.

I have read reports of the riots on Broadwater Farm in Tottenham where PC Blacklock was hacked to death

How much can people use the excuse that they we swept up in the hysteria of the crowd to justify actions that they might not take ordinarily, and who much are their actions a reflection of their true self.

The Indian government has launched a public relations campaign to gloss over the actions of the crowd, but who will take responsibility for the actions of each individual.

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This week immigration minister Kevin Andrews’ words are being held directly responsible for the spate of racially motivated attacks on Africans around Melbourne, resulting in the death of a Sudanese teenager.

The unrest in Melbourne suburbs is beginning to escalate as Africans respond to violent attacks from other community members after Kevin Andrews announces that he does not feel that Africans are fitting into Australian life.

Mr Andrews had the cheek to state that violence is not the Australian way yesterday, after the bashing of a policeman during a confrontation with young Sudanese men in Noble Park.

Still refusing to apologise for his recent remarks on Sudanese refugees, Mr Andrews denied he had inflamed racial tensions and said he rejected “any matter which involves violence in the community”.

Criminologist Rob White, who has conducted the first national survey of ethnic youth “gangs” in Australia, said he found nothing to suggest that Africans were somehow more “out of control” than other young people.

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In addition, A historic referendum to recognise indigenous Australians in the constitution will be put within 18 months if the Coalition is re-elected, Prime Minister John Howard pledged last night.

In a dramatic gesture to indigenous Australia before the federal election, Mr Howard did a partial mea culpa, admitting he had failed to deliver his undertaking for reconciliation and promising a fresh start.

Speaking last night to the Sydney Institute, he indicated he now accepted that the symbolic side of reconciliation — which he previously rejected — was important, along with the practical side of reconciliation.

But he is still refusing to make an apology to Aborigines, saying the approach must be acceptable to “traditional” Australia — “people who think this country has basically done the right thing”.

The timing is somewhat questionable as Mr Howard is expected to call an election very shortly, and is canvassing the Aboriginal vote.

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I was looking for a Star Trek original communicator sound to use as a ringtone for my phone. I found this website that had such cool sounds that I have made it ‘Website of the week’ http://www.barbneal.com/trektos.htm